Hokiefan's Collection Of Arkansas Obsoletes, Scrip And National Bank Notes

Here is a 75 cent note, Rothert 187-3, issued by the Bank of Dixie. This was an unchartered small bank which operated for a brief time in Fayetteville. The signer of the note is W.L. (Washington Lafayette) Wilson, an early merchant and legislator in Fayetteville. He was also with the Fayetteville branch of the Bank of the State of Arkansas in the late 1830's, and his signature appears on some notes from that branch as president.

This example is the Rothert plate note for this issue.

Fantastic examples!

A couple interesting examples of Arkansas merchant scrip I recently picked up. The first is a 10 cent note, Rothert 620-2, from Stony Point. It was a village in White County about 5 miles west of Beebe (pronounced "BB"). The merchant was H.B. (Henry Beverly) Strange, who along with Dr. D.P. Coffey originally surveyed the town lots in 1858. When the railroad bypassed Stony Point in the early 1870's, Strange along with most other merchants relocated to Beebe Station, a stop on the new railroad, which was incorporated under the name Beebe in 1875. I believe the only thing left of the village is the Stony Point (now Stoney Point) cemetery in the suburbs of Beebe.

In the upper right, the note has a vignette of a dog with a key alongside a strong box which appears on many examples of merchant scrip in the state, as I've previously shared. The vignette to the left appears to be a steam boat and a couple sailing vessels.


The other is a 25 cent note, Rothert 340-2, from Johnsville, a town located in Bradley County in southern Arkansas and established in the 1850's. The issuer of this note, which features a vignette of a train, was the merchant John Brady. According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas, the town was named Johnsville because so many of the prominent early settlers of the community, including Brady, were named John.

One thing a bit different on this note is the redemption clause. Usually, Arkansas merchant scrip was redeemable in Confederate currency and sometimes Arkansas treasury warrants or war bonds. This one simply specifies "Redeemable in currency".

Thanks, jbuck!


I've been meaning to make a map showing the locations of all the towns for which I've got either a NBN or an example of merchant scrip. This is my first note from Bradley County, and I have no scrip from Desha County, just two McGehee national bank notes.

I did get a start on it in Google Maps, under the My Maps feature. It seems to work OK except for a few towns that no longer exist. Interestingly enough, a couple of those non-existent towns, such as Arkansas Post, do show up correctly because they're now historic sites. I'll have to try to use lat/long instead of the town name for those it doesn't recognize.

Unfortunately it's not very customizable; for instance, I'd like to be able to show a heavy state border displayed or display only the state of Arkansas, but neither of those things seem to be possible. I could make an jpeg image and then edit it using another tool, I suppose. I'll poke around with some other options a bit before I share my results...

Sounds like the beginning of progress!

Good luck!